Family state - Kazokukokka (English spelling) family state

A type of state that considers the "family" as the unit of state formation and derives the principle of legitimacy of political rule on that basis. A typical example is the feudal imperial state in Japan before the war. In Europe, pre-modern political scientists such as Aristotle and J. Bodin generally considered the family to be the basic unit of state formation. However, the idea of ​​the family state emerged in the political world, especially as a reactionary political ideology for the defense of absolute monarchy, during the civil revolutions of the 17th and 18th centuries. For example, the British Filmer explained the legitimacy of the absolute power of the monarch as the father of the nation based on the powerful patriarchal authority in the family at that time. In response to this, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and others argued that the basis of power is based on the consent and contract of individuals who are born free and equal, and stated that the role of the state and government is to ensure the freedom and safety of individuals, thus laying out the political principles of modern democracy. After this, Filmer's view of the family state gradually faded away in Europe.

However, in Japan, even though the country was transformed into a modern nation by the Meiji Restoration, the family-state view continued to function as the main principle of political control until the defeat in the war, which hindered Japan's modernization and gave Japanese politics a strong feudal color. In order to compete with the imperialist powers, the Meiji government adopted a policy of enriching the country and strengthening the military, and prioritized the interests of the nation over the interests of individuals. For this reason, feudal Confucian morality based on loyalty and filial piety, which was once rejected by the Meiji Restoration, was revived in the 1880s, and the family-state view, which requires absolute obedience to the orders of the Emperor, the father of the nation, was widely instilled in the people through the Imperial Rescript on Education and national moral education textbooks. In this way, in prewar Japan, the principle of imperial rule was established by combining the idea of ​​absolute loyalty to the Emperor as the head of an unbroken line of succession with a feudal family system based on the absoluteness of patriarchy in the family and non-modern village community regulations. Then, in the Showa period, this view of the family and state was expanded to the world, and a theory was formed to justify imperialist wars of aggression, which viewed the world as one big family with the Emperor at its apex, a concept known as Hakko Ichiu. However, after the war, the feudal family system was dismantled, the equality of the sexes within the family was guaranteed in the Japanese Constitution, and modern political principles based on popular sovereignty and respect for the individual were established.

[Hiroshi Tanaka]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

「家族」を国家構成の単位とし、それを基礎にして政治支配の正当性原理を導出する国家類型。戦前の日本における封建的な天皇制国家が典型例。ヨーロッパにおいてもアリストテレスやJ・ボーダンのような近代以前の政治学者たちは、おおむね、家族を国家構成の基本単位とみなしていた。しかし、家族国家という考えが、政治の世界においてとくに絶対君主擁護のための反動的政治思想として登場したのは17、18世紀の市民革命の時代であった。たとえばイギリスのフィルマーは、当時の家族における強大な父権から国父としての君主がもつ絶対権力の正当性を説明した。これに対して、ホッブズ、ロック、ルソーなどは、権力の基礎は、生まれながらにして自由で平等な諸個人の同意や契約に基づくものであると主張し、国家や政府の役割は個人の自由や生命の安全を図ることにあると述べて近代民主主義の政治原理を打ち出した。これ以後、ヨーロッパではフィルマー的な家族国家観はしだいに影を潜めた。

　ところが日本では、明治維新によって近代国家に転換したにもかかわらず、敗戦まで家族国家観が政治支配の主要原理として機能し、そのことが日本の近代化を妨げ、日本の政治をきわめて封建的色彩の強いものとした。明治政府は帝国主義列強と伍(ご)していくために富国強兵策をとり、国家の利益を個人の利益に優先させた。このため、明治維新によって一度は否定された、忠孝を柱とする封建的な儒教道徳が明治20年代に入って復活され、国父である天皇の命令には絶対服従せよとする家族国家観が、教育勅語や国定修身教科書などを通じて広く国民の間に植え付けられていった。こうして、戦前の日本では、万世一系の宗家としての天皇に対する絶対的忠誠という観念に、家族における父権の絶対性を基礎にした封建的な家族制度や非近代的な村落共同体的規制を結合させて、天皇制的支配原理が確立された。そして昭和期に入ると、この家族国家観は世界に拡張され、世界を一大家族と見立てて天皇をその頂点に置く、いわゆる八紘一宇(はっこういちう)という形態をとる帝国主義的侵略戦争の正当化理論が形成された。しかし、戦後、封建的な家族制度は解体され、日本国憲法において家族における両性の平等が保障され、個人の尊重を志向する国民主権主義にたつ近代的な政治原理が確立された。

［田中　浩］

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